Sailor Naru
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Naru adopts a cat and sets off a chain reaction that could change the fate of the Elemental Nations! Can they find the Sailor Senshi in time to protect the Moon Princess, or will she be lost? And why is Itachi acting so strange? How will the legacy of the Sage of Six paths react when one of the senshi is a container for the Bijuu?
1. Chapter 1

Naru woke up with a shout. It was that dream again. The one where she died by her own hand. But the sword didn't look normal.

She looked at the clock and scowled. Yet another day of hate and anger for something she didn't do. She threw open the curtains and took a breath of air. She hated that nightmare...it woke her up far too early every time!

She gave the ceiling and floor a cursory glance. Nothing had been moved, which was why she kept it so messy. She took a cautious step on the floor, and to her surprise nothing happened. So her home hadn't been booby trapped for a change. That was good.

She carefully opened the door to the kitchen and ducked without thinking. A senbon flew past her and skewered a bird that was flying near the window, hurting it's wing. It would have trouble flying if she didn't save it from the nasty fall.

She grabbed the bird...which turned out to be one of the message hawks the ninja employed.

The hawk cried in pain, and she carefully removed the needle.

"Hold on, I'll take you to Hana-nee-san," said Naru. She grabbed her coat and once she put it on she ran to the clinic. It was one of the few places she wasn't thrown out of.

Her luck was in.

"Another one Naruto?"

"Senbon launcher got a lucky hit. Any new pets Hana-nee-san?"

"Take a look in the back. I'll make sure the bird gets taken care of," said Hana waving the girl off.

"Thanks, Hana-nee-san!" said Naru.

"That girl...when will she ever stop hiding who she is?" muttered Hana. She knew Naruto was really a girl, but in respect for her safety she said nothing. The sad fact was that she was safer as a boy.

That didn't stop her from taking classes as her real gender. Kiba often complained that the Haruno girl shrieked far too often because a mysterious kunoichi-in-training kept stealing her spot as the top student in class.

* * *

Naru wandered the back of the vet's office, which doubled as a shelter for all the loose animals in the village. In order to give the animals their best chance, they were often trained as nin animals. It worked rather well.

Naru looked at all the animals with interest, but once again most of them shied away from her. Some came near her, but they didn't want her too close.

She was about to give up when she found a cat that didn't shy away from her. Which was odd because most cats wanted nothing to do with her.

She held out her hand, and the cat actually came up and allowed her to pet it. Her smile was wide as she carefully picked up the feline.

"Any luck Naruto?"

She bounded up to the Inuzuka girl and proudly displayed the cat that had allowed her to pick it up.

"We just recently found that kitty. It's shown a large amount of intelligence, but we don't know if it's been trained yet. You sure you want her?"

"Yup! She's the only animal not scared of me!" she said happily.

"I'll get the paperwork. If anything happens you come to me first okay?"

"Sure thing Hana-nee-san!" said Naru.

She walked out with a bag full of things for her new cat, and a collar. After removing the bandage Hana had placed on the cat's forehead (unsure whether the odd marking was a wound or not) she decided to name the cat Tsuki.

The collar around the feline's neck had a small bell held by a crescent moon.

"Oh no! I'm going to be late for class!" said Naru in horror.

She ran to her house, pulled out a blank scroll and bit her thumb hard enough to cause it to bleed. The cat watched in interest as the girl created a small storage scroll and placed the new items in it.

"Hmm...let's see...I did that last week. I know! Hehehe...that'll be perfect!" said Naru.

* * *

"GET BACK HERE! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!" yelled a female ANBU.

Naruto the prankster had struck again. In order to keep her secret safe, she used an odd ability to make solid clones that she had discovered by accident. On one hand, Naruto would prank the ANBU while her clone would take the place of Naru the mystery student. Unlike Naruto, Naru had perfect attendance and was the strongest kunoichi in the school.

The only problem was that very few people even knew who she was or where she lived. All they knew was that she held the top spot for the females and wasn't a Sasuke-fangirl.

Oh, and that she was the only real friend the Hyuuga heiress had. The two were often debating cooking recipes and books.

Naruto laughed and evaded the ANBU with practiced ease.

Suddenly Iruka appeared and grabbed Naruto. Naruto gasped a bit, but didn't complain. Iruka was the only person that she allowed to capture her in that disguise.

"Naruto, I can't believe you. If you keep this up you'll never pass the graduation exam!" said Iruka exasperated.

"Bah! Like I need that thing to tell me how good I am!" said Naruto.

Unknown to Iruka, Naru _had_ already passed the exam last year. But because of her teammates, she had been forced back in the academy. It helped that old man Hokage had allowed her to learn one jutsu from the big scroll in his office as a reward.

Regular clones were too hard for her, but the shadow clone wasn't!

"Today we're doing a review for the replacement jutsu. Pay attention Naruto!" said Iruka. Naruto humphed, and turned his head.

* * *

By the time class had ended, Naruto had escaped easily enough and Naru was still hiding under a very weak henge trick. People knew she was a blond with blue eyes but never saw the whiskers or any other real distinguishing features. It was more of a blurring than anything, which was why most didn't pick up on it.

Her new cat was under her desk sleeping away.

Naru checked her new cat for wounds just in case. Hana had mentioned the feline had been found inside a crater unconscious.

The cat looked her dead in the eye and then did the one thing that would cause Naru to blink in shock.

"Where are your parents?" it asked.

Naru blinked, then looked at the cat dead in the eye and tried to dispel any genjutsu. While she wasn't very good at the art, she was very good at seeing the illusion placed on others. Hell, she placed one on herself every day!

"I'm not an illusion girl. Why are you alone and why did those other animals shy away from you?" demanded the cat.

"The hell if I know why they don't like me. And I've never had parents before. Don't even know who they are," she replied tartly.

The cat looked at her in disbelief.

"Why is it that you aren't living in the orphanage and disguise yourself as a boy?" she asked. The cat was definitely female with that voice.

"One, the orphanage threw me out when I was five and I had to live on the streets until Teuchi from the ramen stand told the old man. And two, it's safer to be a boy than it is a girl if people look at you like they want you to drop dead on the street," she said deadpan.

Naru gave the cat a very strong look, and the kitty took the hint.

"My name is Luna. My job is simple enough. I was to locate four girls who were the reincarnated forms of the Inner court of the Moon. So far the only one awakened to any real extent is the final one, and that only because my partner got to her in time," said Luna sourly.

"What do they look like?"

"I have no idea. I can barely remember that as it is. However I do know what some of their abilities are. Wood, flame, water, wind and light. From what I understand the first would be the hardest to find, since the only report of wood chakra was from the Senju clan and the only survivor of that is far too old."

Naru paused, and thought hard. She could actually think of one person who fit the wood bit, or at least the ice one.

"I think you would would have better luck waiting until the graduation exam and the girls to be kicked back to the Academy. Kami willing, some of them will drop their damn crush on Sasuke," said Naruto sensibly.

Luna sweatdropped.

"So I noted," she said depressed.

"Is there any way to help speed things along?"

"There is. I made sure to place a command center in the village...though it was a real pain doing so with all those creepy abandoned areas..."

"Oh? Can you show me a few? I earn some cash if I find any of those places while I'm hiding and the old man lets me keep any weapon or scroll that catches my interest that isn't bad to practice with."

Luna, in the interest of helping her new owner, showed her exactly where the rather creepy labs were that everyone (including Naru who would have found them eventually if given proper motivation) had missed after a certain snake went rogue.

* * *

The Hokage was so impressed that she found more than two that she ended up with an entirely new arsenal of sharp pointy weapons, scrolls, and the promise that she could keep one of the labs once it was cleaned out of anything of importance. (Anything not of note were hers for the keeping.)

While Naru swiped scrolls left and right from the piles (the old man turned out to be the Hokage, and after showing her the shadow clone she turned out to be the most efficient at sorting things to his surprise) Luna got her to tell her more about her living situation. Not that she didn't have suspicions after seeing the looks her male form got in the village. She would have had to live off nothing but ramen if she didn't have that fake personality for the villagers to vent their anger at. They left her alone and didn't over charge her as Naru.

When Naru finished (keeping a hundred and fifty scrolls that caught her interest and didn't count as classified) she sealed the rest in four different storage scrolls and handed them over to the ANBU outside. Her next task was sorting through the weapons. It took her two hours to get through those, and she had kept fifty of them for herself.

"I don't understand why you even bother doing this. From what I've seen your patience isn't very good," commented Luna. She was rather surprised no one really reacted to the fact she could talk. Not even the rather twitchy ninja outside made any worrying moves after the old Hokage heard her speak when Naru accidentally stepped on her tail.

"I get to keep some new tricks and toys to train with later and best of all I get paid for it. Even though I'm not an official genin cause of my crappy team last time, I still get paid A and S rank for discovering and sorting for the old man so he doesn't have to get the civilian council involved. Besides, I get to skip out of class legally without Iruka coming after me."

"I don't get why he is the only one around here that can actually catch you..." Luna muttered.

"Simple. I like him and actually respect him. As such, he is the only trained shinobi I allow to catch me when I prank someone important...like the female ANBU agents in the cat girls suits last week," said Naru.

They paused as the ANBU outside started coughing in a very fake manner, clearly remembering that incident. Naru grinned.

"Always great to know I have admirers. Any requests ANBU-san?"

"...Can you replace Anko's dango with something she hates?" he suggested. He wasn't a big fan of the kid, but then again it would totally be worth it to hear Anko's scream of rage if he pulled it off.

"Can do!" chirped Naru with a grin.

She finished the last of the sorting and handed the scrolls to the ANBU agent. She could sense his grin and grinned right back. Just in case she marked his ANBU mask so she could set the blame on the one who set her on the insane snake lady.

* * *

Luna watched with interest as Naru performed the request perfectly. She successfully switched the hot dango with some rather foul low calorie, fat free snacks the same shape...and then managed to get out before Anko took her first bite.

In a second flat the woman screamed bloody murder and started running after a laughing girl who was in her male form. Anko kept sending a disturbing number of poisonous snakes at her, though they missed her each time.

"Why do you prank so many people?" asked Luna.

"Have you seen the genin and academy students around here? Who else is going to keep me on my toes and inadvertently give me proper stamina training?" retorted Naru.

Luna thought about that, and conceded the point. The chunin and jounin were rather good at running, and it only meant the girl could fight longer than most of her classmates. It also meant she was most likely to make a real name for herself before she was twenty and a jounin.

Say what you will about shinobi, but Luna knew for a fact that the Moon Kingdom could have done worse than have a few on their side during the last battle.

When Anko finally caught up to the girl and cat after she allowed it, she grinned evilly at her.

"You have some stamina brat. A pity you must die for the travesty you unleashed on me."

"Special request. One of my fans dared me to it," she shrugged.

"Name?" asked Anko eagerly.

Naru smirked in a way that made Anko proud.

"He's the current Mouse ANBU."

"Oh him. Fricken' pansy! You're pretty good girly. You ever think of bein' a hunter nin?"

"At the moment I'm more concerned with graduating without blowing the fact I'm really a girl to my classmates. Wait a minute, how the hell did you know I was female? People always assume I'm a guy!" she said surprised.

"No guy is naturally that flexible at that age, and that breast band of yours isn't nearly good enough to hide that movement under the jacket," snorted Anko.

"Why do you think I like this jacket so much?" she smirked.

Anko laughed.

"I like you kid! Tell ya what, come visit me after I'm done with a certain doomed ANBU and we'll hang out!" grinned Anko.

"You got it crazy snake lady!" said Naru.

Once they were out of the forest, which had never scared Naru because it protected her a few times from the mobs, she looked at her amused cat.

"You know what Luna-chan? You must be my good luck charm!" said Naru.

"Perhaps you're mine," said Luna grinning. While Anko was a bit terrifying, she was a nice person once you got past the insanity.

Though if the woman turned out to have senshi powers she was going to bang her head on something repeatedly just to save herself the trouble of asking the universe why it hated her so.

* * *

"Naru," Iruka called out. He had always suspected that Naruto was hiding something big, and he fully believed Naru had something to do with that secret.

Aside from being the top kunoichi ever since she enrolled (annoying Haruno in the process because that was supposed to be her spot) no one knew much about her...except for the fact that she was best friends with the Hyuuga heiress and knew how to cook.

"Henge and substitution," said Iruka.

The girl turned into a passable version of him, though the evil glint in her eye gave him the shivers, and then substituted herself with Mizuki who suddenly found himself with a nasty shock tag on his back.

When he sat down, Iruka was trying hard not to laugh his ass off because the man's hair was standing on end, literally.

"Pass!"

Naru walked out with her shiny new headband, as her clone walked in with a chakra suppression seal on his back. She held back a frown and went to talk to Hinata when they heard the clone complain loudly about his poorly made bushin. Not for the first time Naru was glad the old man let her learn the shadow clone. Hyuuga and their damn bloodline.

As she was walking to the ramen stand for her well deserved reward, she got a message from her clone.

Mizuki wanted her double to take the big scroll from the old man and run off with it while avoiding being caught by Iruka. She grinned and decided to have some fun before she revealed to Iruka the fact that she was already a genin and that she was a girl. Oh, and beat the hell out of the traitor as well.

And then she spotted the dango stand and a really evil idea came to her. The cackle that it came from the idea sent a shiver down Luna's spine...


	2. Chapter 2

"HE'S STOLEN THE FORBIDDEN SCROLL!" was the general cry.

The Hokage watched his shinobi run around like headless chickens and sighed. Naru was more trouble than she was worth sometimes. At least she had given him a heads up about what was going to happen and they got rid of a traitor who picked the worst person to trick. The fact that she had been pranking the entire village for _years_ now didn't matter in the least.

If she succeeded in capturing Mizuki even with her extra 'help' (how she got on Anko's good side after sabotaging the woman's dango he really did NOT want to know) then her reward was that she got to choose her team this time and he would ignore the fact that she was learning more tricks from the scroll. Though chances were that her new nin animal (the fact that this Luna could talk and had more common sense than her owner was a bit worrying, but easy to ignore because it meant she could keep Naru out of trouble for the most part) would keep her from getting them killed.

Naru ran into the forest as planned, carrying a large scroll behind her. Anko had been alerted to where Mizuki expected her male side to wait for him and was lying in wait for the fool to show up and prove her right. Any ninja who showed up before then and proved himself loyal enough to Konoha without holding whatever it was that pissed off so many people in the village was in for a large commendation and part of the pay she was getting for exposing the traitor.

Telling the Hokage about the man's intent before 'stealing' the scroll meant she _was_ getting paid for this nonsense.

To be honest, it was rather easy to get Anko to help her get revenge on Mizuki. All she had to do was tell her that she was going to be paid for torturing a traitor who was dumb enough to attempt to trick her male clone into stealing an important scroll and no one could complain about it. The fact that Anko actually _liked_ her was just a bonus.

Naru paused at the small cabin where Anko was waiting. She quickly took the scroll out and did her speed copy trick where she had her clones do most of the work on different sections. Within half and hour, she had copied a good quarter of the forbidden scroll onto another and only with techniques that actually caught her interest.

Some of them she copied for Anko in case the woman hadn't heard of them yet.

Forty five minutes in, and Iruka showed up. He was clearly taken aback by the speed she was showing at copying. And the fact that she wasn't wearing a jacket.

"Naruto...?" he said in absolute confusion.

"Not now Iruka-sensei, give me a minute... And done. Figures you'd be the only shinobi to make it here in time to get the paid unofficial mission on your record. All those years of allowing you to catch me must have made a difference," snorted Naru. She slipped her jacket back on in time to hear Iruka sputter.

Suddenly she tensed, and Iruka pushed her away from the quartet of shuriken and kunai launched at her. She immediately placed her Naruto persona up and played the act of a fool.

If Iruka hadn't seen those clones and the breast band, he would have kept buying the act too.

Naru grinned evilly as she walked up, scroll in hand. Anko was merely waiting for the signal.

"If you touch Iruka-sensei again, I will personally make your life hell," she growled.

"Prove it demon brat!"

"I think you mean Demon bitch!" she said, throwing her jacket on the ground while she prepared to deal some heavy damage. Anko took the hint and appeared with a snarky grin.

"Can I come and play brat, or is this invitation only?" she asked, cracking her knuckles.

Mizuki paled considerably...as Naru bowed to her fellow kunoichi and said "By all means Anko-nee-chan. Shall we have some fun before we take him back for you to play with him?"

Iruka did the only wise thing and covered his eyes. Some things men were never meant to see...and Anko with an able and willing cohort as devious as his favorite student was one of them.

He deliberately avoided looking at Mizuki as he stared at her.

"I guess this means you're already a genin. And here I was going to pass you anyway," he chuckled.

Naru grinned. There was a reason she liked Iruka so much.

"Sorry I didn't let you know about the fact I was a girl all this time sensei. But it was easier to let those mobs beat the hell out of me instead of doing something else..." said Naru.

Iruka gently ruffled the head of spikes.

"I don't blame you. I'm just glad you trust me now. So, how does all you can eat ramen on me sound?"

"Dango!" said Anko grinning.

"Ramen!" said Naru without missing a beat.

"Dango!"

"Ramen!"

The two girls looked at each other and said "Dango _and_ Ramen!" they declared. Iruka sweatdropped along with Luna.

Then Naru got an evil idea that appealed to her greatly. Anko often complained that there were no quality guys worth her time and she eyed Iruka. Anko clearly caught the look because her grin widened.

"Say Iruka-sensei..." said Naru with an evil grin.

"Why do I get the feeling there will be more pain in my future...?" he asked to no one in particular.

"Experience?" asked Luna.

"Yes, I believe that would explain it," said Iruka.

The strangest thing happened when Naru brought her cat with her for the second time.

Luna and Iruka just clicked. The two would often muse about the blond demon container and hash out some rather impressive ideas to keep her in line. The strange thing was that most of those ideas actually _worked_.

"I will consider paying for half of the victory ramen and dango...if you take Anko-nee-chan on a date," said Naru.

Iruka weighed the consequences. On one hand, Anko was one of the hottest kunoichi in the Leaf and the damage to his wallet wouldn't leave him eating nothing but plain rice until his next mission. On the other hand she was absolutely insane and had an unpleasant habit of dropping snakes on people who annoyed her.

"I'll do it only if she promises not to bring out any breed of snake on the date," said Iruka after some thought.

"Deal!" said Anko amused.

* * *

"So how many did you get?" asked the Hokage over a bowl of ramen.

"Nearly twenty, and three of them I plan to share with Anko-nee and two with Hana-nee if they're interested."

He raised a single eyebrow. At least she had chosen two kunoichi that were extremely loyal to the village and didn't care about the demon.

"So who do you want on your team?"

"Anyone _not_ a damn Sasuke fan girl or the emo himself. Hinata if I could get her to team up with me, since I'm the only one able to get her out of her shell," said Naru.

"About that..."

"What?" she asked warily.

"As the top kunoichi, you are automatically placed with the weakest person who passed...and the top student. Or second from the top since you were able to make good use of the shadow clone trick."

The look Naru shot him made him laugh...but on the inside he was wincing.

"Who was the worst scoring shinobi?" she asked with a pained look.

"Inuzuka Kiba."

Suddenly she brightened.

"Dog boy got worst score? On second thought..."

"Compared to your male form, which would be awkward and dangerous to explain," said Sarutobi quickly.

"Damn. Couldn't we just say he passed?" she asked.

"Only if you want to be on a 'four man' team, despite the fact Naruto is a shadow clone."

Naru laughed hard.

"Only if my sensei is too dumb to notice that fact! Either way I get a helper on the field!" she cackled.

"...You have been spending _far_ too much time with Anko."

"Aside from Hana-nee-san, she's the only one in the know about the truth," said Naru flatly.

"What about your cat?"

"Busy helping Iruka-sensei for his date, and giving him last minute pointers," said Naru.

"Iruka on a date?"

"I set him up with Anko-nee, since he's the only guy I trust with my secret," said Naru flatly.

"I've been meaning to ask. While I know talking nin animals aren't exactly rare, your new...pet...is a bit more intelligent than normal. It has yet to display most of the traits talking cats usually have, and it acts more human than most."

"Meh. Luna-chan said she was looking for the re-in-car-nations of some princess who died. Apparently the girl's mother sent her daughter into the future because they were on the losing side of a battle," said Naru. She had to sound out the word because it was one she wasn't familiar with.

"Unusual. Did she happen to mention any distinguishing features of the girl?"

"No, but she did mention the powers the girl's inner court were supposed to have. Apparently they were named after planets and had elemental powers."

"Not that odd, considering most ninja have one or two elements."

"Yeah, but one of them happens to be a combination of Wood and Lighting."

Now that caught his attention. Many were aware the reason Orochimaru had been kicked out of the village was because of his experimentation of children, but only a select, trusted few knew that of the infants he tried to give the Mokuton kekkei genkai, only _two_ survived. One of which was female and was a few months older than Naru. The strange thing was that the girl was a natural wood and lightning element, which explained how she survived at all.

The two paused in eating their ramen as they watched Anko pass by in a rather nice outfit that didn't showcase her exhibitionist side. It was highly appropriate for a date. Iruka came running up, realizing he was a few minutes late and hoping Anko wouldn't set her snakes on him.

Luna spotted Naru and immediately went to join her.

"What did you tell him? He looks like that time I put Itching Powder on his chair by mistake," asked Naru.

"How did you put it on his by mistake?" asked the Hokage in amusement.

"I was trying for Mizuki, and didn't realize Iruka would take his chair that day," said Naru sullenly.

The Hokage laughed, as the two watched Iruka and Anko head out to their date.

"What are you planning?" he asked.

"I was thinking of following them, but I have a better idea in mind."

"Oh?"

"We watch them on that crystal thing of yours and I don't tell Kurenai-san about the fact that it doesn't keep you from spying on the ladies half of the bath houses," said Naru impishly.

The Hokage didn't gape at her, he knew full well that she wasn't threatening him with a bluff. It would amuse her greatly to see Kurenai hit him with a nasty genjutsu once she learned about the crystal, and he knew damn well Anko and Naru would be cheering her on.

"Ramen first, then we spy on them. If you're lucky I'll let you pick the other teammate, since I know the Uchiha would raise hell when he learns the truth about you," said the Hokage gruffly.

"Not as much as that damn harpy would," said Naru flatly.

"Luckily for you, since you stole the top kunoichi spot from her you won't be placed on a team with her. Naruto, on the other hand..."

"Think anyone would actually figure it out if I finally let the illusion drop?"

"Wait until you get a team that passes, and then no one can legally touch you and I won't have to cover for you if you defend yourself," said Sarutobi.

"Can we record the Council's reaction when they hear I was a girl the whole time?"

"Are you kidding? The few ANBU who are aware of the truth have cameras at home waiting for me to alert them when that event happens so they can savor the reactions. You can hide behind me when I tell them!" cackled Sarutobi.

* * *

As it turned out, Naru ended up with Shikamaru and Chouji, who were of the few people who knew that she was in fact a girl. Shikamaru had the claim of being the only person, however, to figure out that Naru was in fact the real face of Naruto, which even Shino and Kiba couldn't claim. Because of this he was officially Naru's best friend.

She did feel somewhat sorry for her clone and Luna, who were stuck with Haruno, the emo Uchina brat, and the chronically late Kakashi.

Then again she was stuck with the second most vocal fan of the Uchiha jerk, Ino Yamanaka.

She couldn't wait to give the girl a rude wake up call, though to be fair Ino was more serious about being a kunoichi despite being the undisputed gossip hound of the Academy.

"Alright, since we had an odd number of graduates, why don't we get started?" asked Asuma.

"My name is Naru Uzumaki. I like ramen, animals, and reading. My hobbies include gardening, helping out at the Inuzuka vet office, and playing pranks. I dislike girls who aren't serious about being kunoichi, people who are way too loud or violent, and those who think that the fox is it's jailor. My dream is to one day be Hokage and rub it in the faces of those who've tried to make my life hell!"

"Hold up. Did you just say Uzumaki? Are you related to that idiot Naruto?!" asked Ino incredulous.

Shikamaru and Chouji started laughing, hard.

"Ino, she isn't related _to_ Naruto, she _is_ Naruto," said Chouji.

"WHAT?!"

"I figured it would be easier to learn if the teachers had someone else to target, so I came up with a fake identity to keep them off my ass. It wasn't until two years ago that I was able to be in two places at once," explained Naru amused.

Ino seemed absolutely devastated that such a juicy piece of gossip had gone undiscovered right under her nose.

Naru held up a hand and said "But I will give you undisputed rights to parade the fact that I am really a girl if we pass this teamwork test and rub it in Sakura's nose later."

"Deal!" squealed Ino.

It didn't take long for the introductions to continue, and even less time for them to learn what they needed to do in order to pass.

Shikamaru came up with the primary plan to get their new teacher, while Naru mostly gave her personal experience pranking the upper level ninja and getting away with it. By two the team had successfully captured Asuma in what was definitely a modified net trap created by Naru who was laughing at Asuma.

"I suppose you three pass. Which reminds me, exactly how are you going to explain to Dad that he just assigned two genin to one teacher instead of three?"

"Jiji knows that, he just wanted to give me a fair chance of passing this time since last time it wasn't even my fault. Either way I am not joining a team that has the harpy and the emo on it! Ino is one of the few girls I can tolerate!" said Naru vehemently.

Ino was very surprised by that declaration, and for once didn't jump to defend Sasuke.

"So what now?" asked Shikamaru.

"Now I'll go tell dad you four passed and possibly capture Kakashi's look when he realizes that he was just given a shadow clone instead of Naru disguised as a boy. Since you passed I can assume that means we'll be having a council meeting tomorrow involving blackmail?"

"You better believe it! Once that's over I'll follow Ino and enjoy the looks of shock, disbelief and outright surprise when people learn my real gender!" cackled Naru.

* * *

_**The Sailor Moon Elements will kick in soon enough. As it stands, I have already picked out three of the four inner Senshi, not counting Moon. Luna doesn't recognize Naru as Sailor Moon because the presence of the Nine Tailed Fox is confusing her senses, and it will remain that way until a while longer.**_


	3. Chapter 3

Naru cackled silently behind Sarutobi, because she heard about Sasuke and Sakura essentially failing Kakashi's test due to their arrogance.

It didn't help that her clone had popped midway through the test and revealed that Kakashi had inadvertently figured out that Naru hadn't been put on his team in his male form. Fortunately he was able to keep the other two from figuring it out by telling them Naruto had given up trying to work with them and had resigned himself to another year at the Academy.

Naru was waiting for the uproar to die down before she got her camera ready. The old man was going to reveal the truth about which team she was really one once the Council finally shut up.

In the rafters she could see several ANBU who she knew fairly well and without the masks with cameras. They were the only ones allowed in aside from the council.

"Silence! The Uchiha and the Haruno girl will be given a second chance, however Naruto will not," said Sarutobi. This confused a great many of the shinobi, with the exception of three. Everyone knew the Hokage cared for Naruto like a grandson, so what the hell was going on?

"Hokage-sama, what of Naruto? Surely you don't expect someone who can pull off that many shadow clones to return to the Academy and waste away there," said Hiashi reasonably.

"I wouldn't worry about that Hiashi. As it stands, Naru-chan has already _passed_ the second genin exam on her second try. She'll be joining Team 10 instead of Team 7, should they actually pass with a different member," said Sarutobi pleasantly.

The full ramifications of what he just said took a few minutes to sink in. Finally the pink haired harpy's mother spoke what all the civilian's were thinking at the moment.

"Hokage-sama, why do you refer to the...child...as a female?" she asked carefully.

Sarutobi bit back a snicker as he said "Naru, you're up."

Naru stepped out from behind him, wearing her hitai-ate proudly and no longer wearing the bulky jacket which hid her rather obvious curves. Curves no boy should ever have. Her hair, which had been cut short, was now rather tastefully arranged and no longer made her look like a complete tomboy. She had a short bright orange skirt and a white sleeveless tee shirt with the Uzumaki swirl on the back.

"Maybe because I am a girl?" she sneered at the woman. Since she wasn't disguising her voice, it was rather obvious as to what her gender was.

Most of the civilians there gaped in disbelief, with a select few shinobi hiding their snickers. Among them were Shikaku, Tsume, Shibi and Hiashi. Though only one of them had learned the truth direct from the source. (Tsume.)

Naru just smiled at the shinobi (most of which could either care less about her or actually liked her to an extent) and sneered at the civilians. She could hear the sound of cameras going off at many different angles and grinned.

* * *

The outcry about her true gender among the genin was totally worth tricking the Uchiha and Haruno into thinking she was on their team.

She couldn't stand either of them on the best of days, and if she had been forced with them she would have transferred out within days.

As an unexpected benefit of telling Ino some of the juiciest gossip that she got to hang over her mother's head for an entire week, her fellow blond quickly became her second best girl friend, next to Hinata, who had been the first person to figure out that Naru was in fact a girl and had encouraged her to continue the boy form.

Because she was on a team with people she actually respected, her skills jumped to the top. Shikamaru caused her intelligence to jump past the meager level it was at. Chouji improved her pranks by adding poisons to the mix, to the delight of Anko who cheerfully debated recipes with the boy to the horror of Asuma. And Ino...

She helped with something Naru had neglected for years. Her femininity. Asuma encouraged it heartily, as long as Ino didn't neglect her own shinobi skills. Not that Naruto would have allowed it.

By the time they started C ranks, they were a tight knit group. Unlike Team 7, which had to have a genin which had lost his own team due to bad intelligence. It was a rare sight for them _not_ to be bickering like children.

Ino shook her head in disappointment that someone she once considered a rival could be so pathetic. Sakura had no skills to speak of, fawned over Sasuke shamelessly instead of actually training, and couldn't do more than the basic Academy Jutsu. It had come as a hard shock for the pinkette to learn that Ino had transferred her claim of 'rival' to Naru, who could at least keep her on her toes.

Even Luna, the bizarre cat that belonged to Naru, was more of a challenge than Sakura.

Sasuke was just relieved that Ino no longer had any interest in him once Naru pointed out that it was Sakura's obsession that inadvertently caused her to be the weakest kunoichi currently in the rosters.

It didn't help that a few weeks after bonding with Ino in a friendly rivalry, Naru had introduced Ino to Tenten, a girl who passed the year before.

* * *

Luna was beyond mystified by Naru. The girl was a bundle of energy...and while the main feeling she got from her was that of a demon fox (which was confirmed by the Hokage to be the Kyuubi no Yoko), there was another undercurrent in her chakra. It was what originally drew her to the girl, despite the fox's chakra repelling most of the other animals. It drove her nuts because it was so bloody familiar and she couldn't put her paw on it!

Not that Luna was truly complaining. She rather liked the enigmatic Naru and her team. Shikamaru was her favorite next to her owner, simply by din of the fact he could keep up with her at Shougi. The look on Asuma's face when Luna beat the boy at the game had been so funny Naru had taken a picture before laughing her ass off.

As it was, Luna had become Shikamaru's unofficial rival at the game, and later Shikaku's when he heard about the cat. It didn't help that she trounced him rather fast.

Perhaps when the girl hit fifteen she would figure out why the hell Naru seemed so familiar...

* * *

He was beyond tired. It had been months since he woke up, and he had yet to find the reincarnation of Princess Venus. To make matters worse, he was being chased by the warriors of this world simply because he displayed a beyond average intelligence for a cat and could speak.

Eventually his body gave out right at the edge of a place covered with a sea of trees, and had the oddest looking gate that was mostly a bright red with a misshapen Leaf. He didn't hear the cries of the blond girls or the shocked voice of his missing partner.

The last thing Artemis remembered was collapsing in an exhausted sleep.

* * *

Ino hovered over the prone body of the white cat. She had been considering getting one after seeing how much having Luna around improved Naru's life. Of course having a talking nin cat was a reward in it's own and helped to ease the loneliness. She sometimes worried about her dad out in the field.

As a result, once Artemis (Luna had recognized him upon sight and given his name) was cleared to be taken home, Ino gained a new pet.

When he woke up, she found the cat had eyes very similar to Naru's sapphire blue ones.

"Where...where am I?"

"You're safe Artemis. Luna was really worried about you," said Ino.

Artemis' eyes widened.

"Luna?! Where is she?"

"Hold up mister! You aren't going anywhere unless you get something to eat! Hana-san would have my head if you collapsed because you weren't taking care of yourself after she patched you up!" said Ino sternly.

Artemis didn't argue and ate his dinner, which thankfully wasn't cat food. Exposure to Luna (and learning that Artemis was like her) had given Ino enough experience to bring up small bites of human food that was safe for cats.

Once he had eaten all he could (which wasn't much because he had been on the run for a while) Ino let him rest on her shoulder while she went to find her team.

While on the way there, Artemis was beyond shocked to realize that the girl who was now his new owner was in fact the same one he had been looking for, for nearly four months! The more he learned of Ino, the more she showed a rather disturbing parallel to Princess Venus.

And where Venus went, she was drawn to the Moon Princess. The two counterbalanced each other, and Venus often displayed a weaker version of the Princess' abilities with the crystal.

So when he learned about Naru, his initial reaction was to run and/or flee. It wasn't the girl that was the problem, it was the demon that was inside her. Once he got over that initial reaction, he began to notice something.

Naru Uzumaki had a very powerful aura, stronger than the demon insider her. Luna didn't seem to notice it, but Artemis did. Which was odd because Luna had been one of the closest advisers to the Princess.

* * *

A week after his recovery, Artemis witnessed something everyone else took for granted. Naru had gotten a rather spectacular bruise on her shoulder and upper torso from one of Chouji's partial expansion attacks...and it healed completely in less than an hour.

Luna explained it off as the demon healing it's jailor, but Artemis didn't think so. The energy she was giving off while her wounds healed wasn't demonic in origin. It was too clean and pure. Most demons gave off a corrupt power that burned all but their own kind.

So what exactly was this power Naru had?

"Oh man, escort missions again!" complained Naru.

"Better than being stuck on D ranks, like Team 7," Shikamaru pointed out.

Sakura and Sasuke tended to whine very loudly about the fact they had been chasing Tora and doing nothing but D ranks for over a month, whereas Team 10 had started on C ranks once Asuma was sure they would work together without complaining about it. Kakashi wasn't an idiot, and he wouldn't take a rookie team out on a C rank that could get them killed.

"Yeah, but being sent to Wave is dead boring! Last I heard the place was in an economical depression and the food was really scarce!" said Naru.

"Food...scarce?!" said Chouji in horror. This could not be allowed. If he was going to be stuck there for a few months, he had best prepare.

This was their third escort mission, and their fifth C rank. Asuma hated the D rank chores, and Naru had created an unholy alliance with Shikamaru to find a way to get them banned from the village chores. Ino and Chouji just followed their lead on that, and now they could only take C ranks.

Asuma rather enjoyed the jealous looks his fellow Jounin gave him for getting out of doing them, even though his team did all the work.

Naru hated escort missions, because rarely did anything happen and when it did Asuma usually took out the rare bandit that did attack.

* * *

The next morning the team of seven (Asuma always included the cats, who were surprisingly very well versed in how to run a small village the size of Konoha, as part of the team) and one drunk client set off for Wave. Upon hearing about the food scarcity, Chouji had sealed what would normally be three months worth of food, but was in fact one month for someone like him and Naru. Though she was highly adept at finding non poisonous plants and animals.

In any case, Chouji planned to share his food if the situation was as bad as Naru had said.

They ran into trouble barely halfway to Wave. Naru noticed the odd puddles, and silently cheered. Maybe now they would have some action!

They moment Naru tensed, the others silently took action. Artemis and Luna immediately went to Tazuna, out of the way of battle. Ino prepared to unleash one of her family jutsu, Chouji got his special snacks ready and a few poisoned kunai, and Shikamaru prepared for a fight.

They weren't disappointed, as the puddles exploded and two missing nin sprang into action.

Naru and Chouji teamed up to take one while Ino and Shikamaru went after the other. The minute Shikamaru had one pinned, Ino went in for the attack. Seconds later the one they had went after his partner, to the man's surprise.

Within five minutes it was all over.

One of the Demon Brothers was pinned, the other poisoned by their own claws.

Asuma looked at their client with something akin to annoyance.

"The two are the Demon Brothers, and I know they aren't stupid enough to attack the Hokage's son. Which means they were after you. Care to explain?"

As Tazuna explained about Gato, Naru nodded. She had read the recent reports about Wave a few weeks ago, at Luna's suggestion.

Luna was of the opinion that if Naru intended to lead the village, she needed to be up to date on the villages outside Konoha. The Hokage was willing enough to let her read the unclassified files, since it was harmless enough. Plus it gave him an excuse to look over the villages that bordered their own.

"Alright team, what's your verdict. Continue or return?"

"Continue!" said Naru.

"I'm with her! This is the most action we've had since the team was formed!" said Ino.

"I'm already packed for a month," said Chouji.

"Too troublesome to fill out the paperwork explaining why we had to abort," said Shikamaru.

"I'm with Naru either way, but maybe one of us should head back and ask for back up?" suggested Luna.

"Actually that might not be a bad idea. A bit of back up wouldn't be too expensive, and if these guys are only the tip of the iceburg, they might be necessary," said Asuma.

"I think we should ask for Anko-nee-chan! Knowing her she'd thank us for rescuing her from the paperwork!" said Naru.

Asuma grimaced at the thought of dealing with Anko.

"I'll consider it. Maybe if we're lucky Kurenai will be available instead," he answered.

Naru wolf whistled at him in amusement. She knew Asuma fancied Kurenai.

Luna sighed.

"I'll go get some back up," she said.

"Be careful!" said Artemis. He remembered vividly the hell he went through until he ended up in Konoha.

"I'll be fine. We're barely five miles out of Konoha and I wear a Leaf insignia. No one will bother me once they see the note," said Luna.

"What note?"

"Just hand me a blank scroll. It's not like anyone will figure out that I can talk," said Luna annoyed.

Naru handed her a spare sealing scroll, and the cat took off. A few days of joining her runs through the village with the ANBU chasing them had done _wonders_ for her speed and stamina.

* * *

By nightfall, they had camped out...and Naru cocked her head.

"Someone's coming. Sounds like four people..." she said.

Asuma prayed it was Kurenai's team...only to discover with dismay that it was Kakashi and his team instead.

Luna looked apologetic.

"Anko and Kurenai were on missions, and they were the only ones available."

"That's it, I'm sharing with Ino! Harpy, Teme, stay the hell away from me!" said Naru loudly.

The two glared at her in annoyance. They liked her about as much as she liked them.


	4. Chapter 4

Once they were past the half completed bridge, Naru went on high alert. Something about the mist that surrounded them didn't feel right. The night before, Artemis had given a strange wand to Ino, saying if things went to hell it would help. The girl wasn't old or strong enough for some of the more advanced attacks, but from what the cat could tell she could pull of the most basic attack Venus had and it would give her somewhat defensible armor.

Even if the outfit was skimpy and would probably give her father reason to strangle him...

Luna, however, kept getting the oddest sense that another of the scouts was very, very close by. And it wasn't Venus, because she had confirmed Artemis' findings about Ino. It almost felt like Mercury.

Which really bothered her since she knew very well the Haruno girl wasn't Scout material. (Something Naru had expressed great thanks for when Luna mentioned it!)

"Naruto! How could you scare that poor rabbit!" shrieked Sakura.

"It's Naru, Harpy. Get my name right at least, or has your obsession with the Uchiha scrambled your brain as well as your wits?" said the snarky blond.

"Naru wouldn't harm an animal...and besides that kunai is at the wrong height. A switch?" suggested Shikamaru.

"Yeah. Someone was there and swapped with the rabbit," said Naru. Her attention was on something else as she shouted "HIT THE DECK!"

A large sword just barely cleared Naru's head, and implanted itself in a tree beside her.

Ino didn't cry out, but Sakura did.

Naru took a good look at the guy on the sword.

"Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist, Jounin Rank," said Naru flatly, as if in disbelief.

Zabuza chuckled darkly.

"It looks like one of you brats actually bothered to do your homework," he said amused.

"More like my cat is really, really bossy," said Naru.

Luna shot her a dark look.

"So what do we have here? Six snot nosed genin, the Hokage's son and Hatake Kakashi..." sneered Zabuza.

"Oi! The only idiots here are the pinky and the emo!" shouted Naru.

The two aforementioned genin glared at her.

The third one laughed, because he agreed completely.

Kakashi just face palmed.

Zabuza sneered, though he did enjoy the blond's snarky remarks. When he created a thicker mist, only Team 10 wasn't quaking in their shoes.

"Seriously? This is the best KI you can do? I've felt worse from the drunken mobs that tried to kill me on my birthday!" said Naru deadpan.

"Why were mobs after you?" asked Shikamaru.

"Let me put it this way, it's the worst kept village secret since Jiji made that damn law that's made my life hell. I only learned recently why people hate me for something other than my pranks," said Naru.

Asuma and Kakashi winced.

Sasuke and the others went around Tazuna, while Naru and Chouji prepared to back up Asuma if need be. The two were the heavy hitters on the team, while Ino and Shikamaru played defense since their family techniques took a little longer and made them vulnerable.

"Sensei!" Naru cried out in shock, as she realized Asuma _and_ Kakashi were in a ball of water and helpless to Zabuza. Naru felt a power answering to her panic, but she kept it at bay in case it was the Fox. She didn't want her friends to find out the worst way imaginable that she had a demon inside her.

Chouji went next to her and said "You go high, I go low."

"Deal."

Naru made the sign for Kage Bushin, and was glad the Uchiha jerk hadn't gotten his Sharingan yet. She didn't want him to steal her jutsu just because of some freaky eye.

"Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" cried Naru, as the clearing filled with doppelgangers. Each of them were armed to the teeth. She didn't see Artemis frown when she unleashed the bushin.

_'That power... Could she really be the one we've been trying to find?'_

Luna seemed to not notice it, but then again she was closer to Naru, and was exposed to a stronger dose of the demon aura. It was entirely possible she couldn't sense it over the Kyuubi.

Zabuza created water clones one handed, and sent them after the bushin. Chouji countered that with an enlarged arm, and literally backhanded the clones. The bushin managed to get within arm's reach of Zabuza before they unleashed a powerful wind jutsu on him, splitting the water prison in half.

Asuma had never been more thankful he had checked their affinities and taught Naru a few Wind style jutsu before then. It was just lucky they shared the same elemental affinity.

With the release of the two jounin, the battle turned. It all ended with a 'thwack' sound and three senbon lodging themselves in Zabuza's neck. He collapsed on the ground and didn't move.

Naru walked up to him, nudged him with her shoe and snorted.

"This guy is totally playing possum," she said flatly.

"How the hell would you know that?" shrieked Sakura.

"Easy. Only an idiot goes for the neck when they're trying to kill someone. Since he ain't spurting out blood whoever just threw these missed the jugular," said Naru.

The mystery assailant grabbed Zabuza firmly and booked.

Kakashi passed out from using his Sharingan, and Asuma carried him to Tazuna's house.

* * *

Once there, Naru waited until they had a moment to think before she gathered her team in their room and put silencing seals all over the walls and doors. Sasuke and Sakura weren't about to learn her greatest secret by eavesdropping if she had any say about it.

"We need to talk," she said.

Before Naru got started, Shikamaru set the tone rather quickly.

"You have the Nine Tailed Fox inside you, am I right?" he asked.

Naru froze, then rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. Trust a Nara to figure that out.

"Yeah. Old man Hokage thought it would be a good idea to announce it to the village in an effort to soothe their fears, but it backfired spectacularly," she said, raising her shirt just enough so they could see her seal.

"Then the law is...?" asked Ino.

"He thought it would help me make friends with the kids too young to understand and others my age. He didn't count on the parents telling them to keep away or spread lies about me."

"I remember that. Dad once said to stay away until he saw you having trouble with some bullies in the park, then he didn't mention it again," said Chouji.

"Yeah...Mom used to say avoid you until my Dad told her to drop it. I've never seen him so angry at her before," mentioned Ino.

Naru winced at the reminder, but silently reminded herself that they were her friends and her team, and they trusted her now.

"So what was the deal with the cross dressing?" asked Ino.

"Some of the teachers were angry at the Fox, and they used to sabotage me. I created Naruto to keep them off my back while I went through the Academy. It worked pretty well, especially when the Old Man showed me the shadow clone jutsu."

"Essentially allowing you to be two places at once," said Shikamaru.

"Yup."

They were silent...until Ino asked "Well what about Luna and Artemis?"

"All I know is that according to Luna she's looking for some Princess and her body guards. Her search brought her to Konoha were I found her at the Inuzuka Vet Office and adopted her," said Naru.

Luna and Artemis coughed.

"Actually it's more like we were drawn to your village specifically. Perhaps now is the best time to elaborate on the full back story..." said Luna.

Day turned to night as the genin listened to the tale of the Princess and the Earth Prince. Ino couldn't help but sigh at how romantic it all was. A forbidden love, star crossed lovers, and a jealous ex who tore them apart with war that wiped out the kingdom, only for the Queen to send her daughter and those who died fighting on their side to the future in the hopes of peace.

Naru knew Ino was a good gauge for kunoichi, and the way they described the battles sounded appealing to her tom boy nature. Perhaps Luna would let her write a book about the history of the Moon Kingdom? Shikamaru could proof read for her.

"So what was that weird stick you gave me?" asked Ino. She pulled it out and took a good look at it.

"After I recovered from my travels, I noticed you had a unique energy signature that belonged to one of the reincarnated inner senshi. More specifically Sailor Venus," said Artemis.

"What was she known for?"

"She represented the goddess of Love and Beauty, and if I remember correctly her element was earth," said Artemis.

"Ino's affinity is earth," said Naru.

"From what I've seen, there is another like her. There is a problem though," said Luna.

"What?"

"She happens to be the one who knocked out your opponent earlier," said Artemis grimly.

* * *

Kakashi had his genin tree climbing, to the dismay of Asuma who had his genin master it a week into their training. It had taken Naru a few extra days and encouragement from her team, but eventually she moved onto water walking with the others.

As it was, Naru and the others went to either help or guard Tazuna while Kakashi trained his genin. The four of them correctly guessed that none of team 7 would listen to their advice, barring the third member whom they didn't even recognize.

Even then, the look he shot Naru and Ino made their skin crawl, and the boys wanted nothing to do with someone like that.

Eventually Artemis took Ino aside to show her how to activate the stick he gave her, and then had to run when she got a good look at what the outfit looked like. Artemis wasn't about to deal with a hormonal teenager with the ability to make him do humiliating things by taking over his body with a look of death in her eye and access to a large amount of sharp pointy objects!

Once she got over her rage, Ino slowly started to use her new attacks, though when the armor came off she felt very drained. Fortunately it was mostly chakra exhaustion.

* * *

Midway through the week, Naru found someone who gave off the slight hum of chakra picking healing plants.

"I wouldn't pick that if I were you. Anyone who got that would be poisoned and dreadfully sick in an hour," she said cheerfully.

The girl froze, almost literally before she turned to Naru. She had long black hair and brown eyes, and she had this aura that reminded Naru of Ino after she finished training with that odd stick.

This had to be the partner of Zabuza, the one Luna and Artemis said was a senshi.

Naru debated healing plants with the girl (who tried to hide the fact she was one) until she left. She could sense her reluctance to fight Naru, and seemed to believe the blond didn't notice the slight hint of chakra about her.

Ino appeared later, and then the two went to town for dinner. The children in the town recognized them on sight, because they often spared some change or food from Chouji's scrolls. Not only did he agree to it, it had been his suggestion in the first place after he went to town with Asuma. He could survive on fish, of which there was an abundance around Tazuna's house.

* * *

Inari went off on the genin again, once more claiming they would be killed by Gato. Naru startled quite a few when she slammed her hand against the table, causing it to shake rather worryingly.

"That is it. I have _had_ it with your blatent whining! So what if your step dad got killed while trying to protect his family. You think that give you the right to say the world is unfair? Let me tell you something, brat. You have a roof over your head, a mother and grandfather who love and acknowledge you, and food on the table despite the economic crisis this place is going through. Your grandfather is risking everything just so you can have a future, and you think your life is _unfair_? Why don't you take your head out of your ass and look around you for a change," Naru snapped.

She left the house, slamming the door in her anger. Luna, who had been silent through the exchange, was the first to speak.

"She has a point you know. You still have a family and people who love you. She only has a small apartment and me to keep her company. She had to hide her real gender just so her teachers wouldn't sabotage her every step of the way and it's almost impossible for her to buy fresh food without growing it or being overcharged by the people in the store," said Luna.

Inari clearly didn't believe her (he was still getting used to the idea of a talking cat) so when he went outside Kakashi told him the full story. Inari couldn't believe that Naru had been completely alone save for a few people until she became a ninja.

Ino had been listening in to the story, and despite being a gossip queen she knew what needed to be done.

She slipped out of the house and went to find Naru. She found the girl systematically destroying dead trees and waited until the girl wore herself out of her pain. Naru didn't know how to react when Ino came up from behind and gave her a strong hug.

Naru actually let some of her pain out, and felt a lot better. Especially when Ino said "Teammates stick together no matter what."

* * *

What they didn't expect when they returned was to find the harpy known as Sakura waiting for them. Much to the dismay of Naru, they had been stuck in the same room as the pink haired girl due to lack of space.

Sakura did not like Naru, particularly when it was revealed that she was in fact the real face of the class clown Naruto. Naru hated her simply because the girl was abusive, annoying, and had very few redeeming qualities as a kunoichi other than her brain which wasn't very good out in the field. Naru half expected the girl to get killed on this mission.

Ino, who was not happy to find herself in the peacekeeper position, tried hard to keep the bloodshed to a minimum. The last thing she wanted was for Sakura to attack Naru out of misguided jealousy. She knew very, very well how that would end, and it wouldn't be in favor of her former best friend.

"I bet you think you're such a tragic heroine, don't you?" said Sakura angrily.

Naru gave her a flat look. She could already see where the girl was going, and if she didn't drop it now there was going to be a lot of pain in her future. Ino could also see this, and was debating whether to let them settle this now or deal with it later.

The moment Sakura started in on how Naru was jealous not to be on the same team as Sasuke and had probably made up that pack of lies to earn sympathy points, the blond gave up what little patience she had and grabbed Sakura by the ridiculously long hair of hers and dragged her ass out of the house.

Ino threw her hands up, silently claiming that she wanted no part of this and she acknowledged it needed to be done. Naru nodded in her direction.

It was time to teach Sakura a lesson she really, really needed to learn before she got herself killed, or worse, her entire team.

The ass kicking Naru delivered caused the pinkette to re-evaluate her career choice. Kakashi studiously looked the other way when he saw the bruises and cuts. Someone needed to get through to that girl...and he hadn't the faintest idea _how_.

Perhaps now Sakura would take her kunoichi training seriously and not be a burden on the other two.


	5. Chapter 5

As it turned out, it was a good thing Naru beat the living hell out of Sakura. The next morning, Naru and the still recovering Sakura overslept while the others went to the bridge. Artemis and Luna stayed behind, since the last thing they needed was for two cats to get underfoot.

Naru awoke to the sound of breaking dishes, and ran outside to find to thugs with Tsunami, Tazuna's kind daughter, being held at sword point. Sakura had enough chakra to hold her own if need be, but Naru waited.

Sure enough, Inari decided to find his courage and went up against the men, despite it being a suicide move. Naru grinned as she did a basic replacement with Tsunami and knocked out the two thugs before Inari got hurt.

"Well done kid! Perhaps you do have some courage!" she said proudly.

Inari gave her a shaky smile, still in a bit of shock over what just happened.

"Oi! Pinky! Get you ass down here!"

Sakura carefully made her way downstairs and glared at Naru. She had learned one thing last night. Her days of wailing on the girl were over. Only time would tell if she could learn to be a real kunoichi or not.

"What?"

"You're on guard duty. There's no telling if Gato sent more than these two losers. Since you can't really fight in a proper ninja battle, you are going to keep an eye on Tsunami and Inari for me. Think you can handle that?" ordered Naru.

In the span of a short battle, something had changed in Naru. This wasn't the carefree girl who cheerfully debated gardening with an enthusiastic Ino. This was someone who knew she had a job to do, and she wanted it done properly.

This was the voice of a real commander.

Sakura straightened without realizing it, as did Inari. They didn't know this until after she left, but neither knew the ramifications of this until much, much later after the mission was long since over.

Naru left, to try and reach the bridge before all hell broke loose. Artemis stayed behind while Luna leaped onto Naru's shoulder. What the girl didn't know was that Luna sealed away the transformation pen of Sailor Mercury. It hadn't been until Naru ran into the girl that Luna pinned down which senshi this was.

* * *

Chouji, Sasuke and the third genin, who was named Haruo and was an orphan without a last name, were pinned in a crystal hell.

Shikamaru was protecting Tazuna while Ino put her limited healing skills to work trying to help the bridge workers who were attacked by Zabuza. Naru made an excellent practice dummy, and Ino found learning healing rather relaxing. As it was, she had managed to save five people who would have died without some form of immediate treatment.

Naru decided to go to the only battle she could make a difference. At Luna's urging she stopped to evaluate the situation before she dove in. So when she did jump in, it wasn't nearly as half assed.

To the amusement of Chouji and Luna, Naru loudly declared her entrance to everyone there. Shikamaru face palmed and Ino sweatdropped.

Haku hid a giggle. Naru was rather amusing in that she managed to cheer up her team and at the same time disorient any enemy ninja. It had the added bonus of causing most ninja to completely dismiss her as a threat.

That is until she let loose the Kage Bushin.

With the arrival of Naru, the fight became almost one sided. Though Haruo and Sasuke were taken out and Chouji was exhausted. Sasuke had gained his Sharingan, finally, but it was a little too late to prevent the large amount of senbon lodged into him. Chouji accepted the fat heavy snacks Naru gave him, and spent the time restoring his reserves. His clan jutsu took a lot of calories, which was why his family was the biggest in Konoha.

Naru understood that, which was why she always packed extra snacks for Chouji.

It soon came down to Naru, the stamina goddess of Konoha, and Haku, the subservient Ice Nin.

Chouji was unconscious from the senbon in his body and as Haku had made no move to attack those out cold, Naru only left three clones to keep an eye on them.

Eventually Naru scored a lucky hit on the girl, and Luna took her chance.

"Aren't you tired of running?" she asked.

Haku paused, and looked at the cat.

"What do you mean?"

Luna unsealed the stick, and had it skid towards Haku. The girl picked it up, not sensing any traps from it. It felt familiar, and sat in her hand perfectly. She sent a small chakra pulse, and got the shock of her life.

The stick had Hyoton chakra in it, just like hers!

"What...what is this?"

"That is the transformation pen of Mercury. The planet that resides over water and ice. You could say it's the guardian planet of your clan. While your dedication to your master is admirable, don't you want to become stronger and learn more about your bloodline? To serve something greater than whom you do now?" said Luna, deciding to use the serve a greater cause ploy. Considering Haku's personality, it was the best she could use.

"Serve? Serve who?" asked Haku confused and a little angry. She would not abandon Zabuza.

"The Moon Princess of course!" chirped Naru, inadvertently activating the lost memories of Princess Mercury from a 1,000 years ago. Haku got a headache, but considering the visions she just had she could overlook that fact.

"I'm sorry...I cannot betray Zabuza-sama," said Haku.

Suddenly the mist cleared, and Zabuza was being held by Kakashi's dogs while Asuma had his trench knives to his throat. But that wasn't what Haku focused on.

At the other end of the bridge was Gato with a large group of mercenaries and a net that lead to a boat. He had come to kill everyone on the bridge. Zabuza was the first to find his voice, and he was _pissed_.

"Since my _client_ has decided to double cross me, my quarrel with you is over. Anyone got a spare kunai?"

Naru popped beside them, and handed him one of hers. Zabuza ran right into the mercenaries and started killing them, all the while making his way to Gato.

Naru surprised quite a few when she brought out several fuuma shuriken and handed them to Asuma. He raised an eyebrow and she quickly demonstrated how far she had gotten with her wind manipulation. The fuuma shuriken she had didn't fall when she dropped them, but started to spin like top. Her control was still shaky, but passable, because they kept wobbling.

She threw the last one she had and the rest followed as if pulled by an invisible string, their wobbling going away the faster they went. The shuriken did what it did best, and she was killing the mercenaries in mass. Asuma, not to be outdone by one of his students, soon followed her lead, though while his control was better, his aim wasn't nearly as good as hers. Fortunately the only person he had to avoid was Zabuza, who was almost halfway to Gato at this point.

He cut the cruel man's head with the now slick kunai, as the blood of the mercenaries in the way had made it harder to hold.

When the mercenaries who hadn't gotten killed by the shuriken or Zabuza realized that their paycheck just died, the more sensible ones immediately surrendered. The idiots however, drew their swords and weapons and prepared to charge the ninja. Most of them were tired from the battles.

It was then that Inari appeared with all those from Wave who were tired of being pushed around by Gato. The second the idiots realized they were now outnumbered by civilians who were more than happy to kill them in order to protect their home, they fled.

* * *

Zabuza didn't know how to react about the story of the Moon Princess. Fortunately Luna had a way to prove she wasn't lying. She had Haku transform.

Haku, while glad the cat and her owner weren't lying did have to raise an eyebrow when she saw how skimpy the outfit was...and the fact that her real gender was now for all the world to see.

When she tried her ice techniques, she found it was much easier to call upon her ice and her speed actually increased. To her relief, under the outfit was a pair of biking shorts, which meant she wasn't flashing people every time she bent down.

Out of the people there (Ino, Artemis, Zabuza, Luna, Haku and Naru) only one saw the symbol that flashed on Naru's forehead. A single crescent moon of gold coloring.

Suddenly Luna realized exactly what Artemis meant when he said there was a familiar power in the girl...and that her healing factor wasn't entirely the demon's fault...

* * *

Kakashi took his students back early, mostly because Zabuza had expressed interest in joining their village if only so his apprentice wouldn't have to live on the run any longer. Only Ino knew of the second pen like thing that the cats had given the girl.

Luna had already mentioned that she was trying to find the third girl, who had the power of Jupiter. The girl in question was on assignment on another mission and wouldn't be back until three months until the chunin exams started.

Depending on how Ino and Haku did with their new powers, the cats might not let her take the pen.

In the meantime Naru and the others decided to have a bit of time with Haku so she could get used to having friends who could care less about bloodlines. It didn't take very long to convince Haku to help Ino in giving Naru some femininity, considering she very rarely wore skirts and the like.

To Naru's embarrassment (and secret pleasure) Haku didn't mind braiding her and Ino's hair. Naru's hair barely reached past her neck at this point, whereas Ino had the longest hair in the graduating class.

Chouji and Shikamaru wisely avoided them during those times. It was only made worse when Tsunami joined them with some old ribbons and they could hear the feminine giggling through the walls.

Asuma shuddered.

"Boys, there are some things men were never meant to understand. That in there is one of them. Hell hath no fury like a teenaged girl when her girl time is interrupted, and that is doubly true for kunoichi and mothers," Asuma said wisely.

"Asuma-sensei, how do you know that?" asked Chouji.

"You ever see Anko Mitarashi go after some hapless idiot who ruins her girl's night out with Kurenai? The last guy was strung up by his balls and he's still moaning about his poor lefty," said Asuma with a shudder.

Zabuza and the other boys winced.

* * *

Tazuna and the other villagers cheered when the last brick was laid into place. The bridge was at long last complete, which meant the mission was over. It had taken two weeks thanks to Naru's clones, but the wait was well worth it.

Naru was trying not to cry as she was tackled in a hug by Inari. Ever since the incident when he tried to protect his mom, the stick up his ass had dislodged completely, and he was much easier to be around. He had begun to think of Naru as a big sister, to her pleasure.

Naru let the tears out as soon as she turned her back, and Luna, who was behind the group, was the only person to hear from the source what the new name for the bridge was.

The Great Naru Bridge was a testament to how much the people of Wave appreciated what Naru had done for them. It was only the beginning of her career, and already she had a bridge named after her. Tazuna would embellish the story of how she saved them to anyone who listened, and she quickly became a bed time story for the children of Wave.

The teamwork in Team 10 shot through the roof since Wave. On Team 7, it had the opposite effect. While Sakura finally started to take her training seriously (she was now apprenticing at the Hospital in an effort not to repeat the three days she had to spend in recovery after Naru lost her temper with her), Haruo quickly started to display signs that he was a pervert, and not one of the good kind, and to make matters worse ever since Sasuke got the Sharingan his superiority complex had become almost unmanageable. He kept spying on training grounds to steal from other teams, but thanks to a warning from Naru word had already spread about the fact that he had activated the eyes so the shinobi only performed the basics whenever they found him nearby.

Even a warning from the Hokage didn't help.

* * *

Naru was bored, but she was on her way to Ino's house for something she never had before. Ino had invited her to a girl's only sleepover, and some of the other girls had come over. Tenten, Hinata and Haku were all going to be there, so she had to bring the entertainment.

She decided to bring her halfway completed book on the Moon Kingdom to gauge how well it would go over with the people of Konoha. Luna and Artemis had helped her to learn more about it, and she did her best to make it appealing to the shinobi populace. It was going to be a three part series.

One, when the Sage of Six Paths married the Queen of the Moon after sealing the Ten tails into it and the hardship they had to endure as the newly created shinobi of the land tried to find a way to control the nine demons.

Two, when the princess was born and the integration of the outlying planets, eventually creating the senshi and the princess' inner court.

Three was how the Princess fell in love with the Earth Prince, eventually leading to war and the destruction of the kingdom with the Sage having passed away before his daughter's fifteenth birthday.

Depending on how the series was seen, she might make a fourth book where the princess is revived and seeks to bring her kingdom back with the help of her reborn court. Naturally the princess would be a shinobi.

She could only hope Shikamaru didn't mind proofreading for her.

Ino's mother was a bit nervous at having Naru over, but after talking to her for a bit she realized the girl wasn't the fox. After that she was easier to deal with.

"Naru-chan! You're here early!" said Ino excitedly.

"Ino-chan! I brought the first draft of that book series!" said Naru.

"Is it the one with the princess and the star crossed lovers?"

"Actually it's about how her parents met. I'm doing her story as the third book!"

Ino gave her the puppy dog eyes, and Naru let her read a few chapters. She wasn't going to let Ino spoil it for everyone else. The blond squealed, because the way Naru wrote it made it sound so romantic. When her mother read a few chapters, even she was impressed.

Inoichi took one look at how well the three were getting along and shivered. He was making himself scarce tonight, because nothing terrified a father like a girl's night in.

The only thing he could take from this was at least his wife didn't think Naru was a demon anymore. He started running when he heard the squeals Naru let out when his wife showed her some flowers from the shop.

"OMG! Naru-chan, your hair! It's gotten soooo long!" squealed Hinata.

"Of course it did! I'm using my favorite prank henge! Though for some reason when I dispelled it the hair didn't go back to being short..." said Naru.

_**Hehehe...**_

Naru blinked. Who the hell just laughed? And why weren't the others commenting on how creepy it was?

"You know what this means don't you? We can finally braid your hair properly!" said Ino with a gleam in her eye.

"Your hair did take to styling rather well," said Haku.

Hinata held up a pair of sharp scissors. Tenten held up some ribbons and bows.

"Oh no, I am not putting a bow in my hair! Ribbons are fine, but I refuse to put in bows!" said Naru.

"Oh fine, spoil sport!" said Ino.

Naru's hair was put into an intricate princess braid, and it looked rather good on her. Ino had a French braid instead of a long ponytail. Tenten surprised everyone by having long brown hair that tended to curl. It was a side effect of having her hair in buns all the time. Hinata's hair was just too short to braid, but they were able to put some bows in it.

Naru then handed out her first draft of the book series she was making. It didn't take long for her to learn that it would be a real success.

"This might be more popular than the _Icha Icha_ series!" said Tenten.

"You think?" said Naru, surprised.

"It's really well written, super romantic, and the battle scenes are just right for the shinobi!" said Tenten.

"I did the battle scenes, but most of the romance ones came from Luna. She was the one to give me the story, I just wrote it," said Naru embarrassed.

"You have a real talent for writing Naru!" said Hinata.

Naru blushed.

"So what's the next book about?"

"How they created the Princess' court, and the third one is where she falls in love with the Earth Prince. The fourth one is where they are reborn, but since Luna can't help me I might have to wing it," admitted Naru.

"We'll help! Right girls?" said Ino.

"You bet! This is the best story I've ever read!" said Tenten. Hinata nodded enthusiastically.


	6. Chapter 6

Naru couldn't wait for the exams to start. Asuma had recommended them...and informed them that Kakashi had rethought his position on allowing his team in. After catching Sasuke stealing other shinobi's techniques with his new Sharingan, he realized with a heavy heart that the boy wasn't ready for such an exam.

Sakura didn't mind, since she was slated to help in the Tower because she wasn't in the exam. She had gotten really good at healing jutsu.

Naru was humming a tune she had heard from one of Ino's magical girl animes (it was the song Lucia sang in the first episode of _Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch_) when she felt an odd presence.

It felt like...her.

She was about to investigate when she noticed something.

"Rocks aren't square gaki!" she said amused more than anything.

"You caught us Boss!" said Konohamaru.

The three came out with a bang, and started coughing.

"Too much gunpowder, not enough awesome," said Naru.

"Aw man! I was hoping to get the boss seal of approval!" said Konohamaru.

"Keep trying. You'll get it right sooner or later. In any case, what do you kids want?"

"Play ninja with us!" they said in unison.

"Hmm..." said Naru, mock thinking, "In that case, today is about stamina!"

The kids didn't know what they were in for. Naru had them prank the women in the bath houses, and soon they were running for their lives from the hordes of angry kunoichi.

"Boss! I'm not too sure about this ninja game!" shouted Konohamaru.

"Are you kidding? This is what I did at your age!" laughed Naru.

(Unknown to them they had caused the Hokage to pass out from a massive nosebleed at the sight of all the naked women chasing them. Some didn't even have towels, let alone clothes. His secretary would come in and find a massive pile of blood all over the desk and a perverted grin on his face.)

When they finally ditched the angry kunoichi, Konohamaru took a breather...before he walked right into a foreign ninja there for the exams.

Naru looked at his headband.

"Huh. So the first foreign nin we run into is Suna. So where's your third?" asked Naru.

Temari was impressed with her. She looked like a serious kunoichi.

"I don't know," she admitted.

Naru sniffed the air. There was the heavy stench of old blood behind and above her. She looked at the branch.

"Oi! You really need to do something about that smell. It reeks!" she said.

A red haired boy with a tattoo for the word love in kanji appeared. He was impressed that she sensed him there, even if it was through her nose.

The other two had a more...strong...reaction to his appearance.

"Gaara!"

Naru looked at him amused.

"You guys hungry? After tormenting the Academy students I always work up an appetite," she said.

"Boss! You said it was what you did at our age!" complained Konohamaru.

"Ah, but what I neglected to mention was that I was already used to being chased. I actually started that training two years older than you guys. Look at it this way, at least now you guys will be able to outlast your classmates!" said Naru mischievously.

The kids groaned, but cheered up when Naru said she'd pay for their lunch too.

Gaara, interested in why she wasn't as afraid of him as his own family followed her.

"Meh. Why would I be afraid of Ichi when I have to deal with Kyu all day? Hearing _him_ bitch is enough to give anyone a headache," she replied cheerfully when he asked.

"Ichi? Kyu?" said Temari.

"According to Kyu you (she looked at Gaara) have a giant sand raccoon in ya," she answered.

Temari nearly froze.

"Is this Kyu like Ichi?"

"He has eight more and ears the size of electrical pylons," she replied.

"Mother says you are like me," said Gaara.

"You mean aside from the fact I'm a girl? Yup."

Once they ate their ramen and talked a bit, they parted ways rather cheerfully. Naru was hard not to like once you knew her.

* * *

It was Artemis who found Mars. The only problem was that the girl in question happened to be from Kusa, which was another village. The girl had red hair, glasses, and a real fiery temper towards her team. It was clear she wouldn't hesitate to slap them.

The one thing that bugged Artemis the most was that Karin felt like Naru, only slightly different. Later he would learn about Naru's mother and the clan that had nearly been wiped out and make the connection.

Karin was an Uzumaki. Which made her part of Naru's family.

His next stop was to the Hokage's tower to inform the old man. Sarutobi later called Naru in to tell the girl about her mother Kushina...and that thanks to the bounty on the Demon Brothers (Zabuza and Haku were not all that sad to see them gone) she could legally buy her parent's old house.

Needless to say Naru was quick to sign the paperwork, using shadow clones to get through it faster. She had to stop for a moment when the old Hokage realized that using shadow clones to do his paperwork would have made things infinitely easier in the long run. The sight of the old Hokage banging his head on the desk for not thinking of it sooner cracked Naru up.

Luna felt like banging her head on something. The place they set up headquarters...was the house that belonged to Naru's parents. At least they could come and go to the computer connected to the moon without drawing any attention.

Even if Naru had to reset the seals on the gate. Currently the only ones allowed in were her team, Tenten, the Hokage, both cats and Haku. If Karin was open to coming to Konoha as Sailor Mars, then she would be added as well. Artemis didn't bother to hide any information from the girl he strongly suspected of being the Moon Princess.

The only real problem was that even though Luna was started to sense the same things, she had yet to give the girl the locket which would hold the silver crystal. According to his partner, she wanted real proof before she gave it up.

As it was, Artemis had the feeling it would take something drastic in order to make Luna give up the locket.

* * *

The first test...was a paper exam. If it wasn't for the fact Naru had been playing the teachers for years, she might have actually panicked. But if she only needed one answer in order to get through this part, she could handle that. She had a knack for decoding things after all.

An hour of waiting for the exam to be over, and finally Ibiki made his move. He tried to psych out the genin, make them fail despite having come this far. She noted Haruno was about to quit, and waited for her to give up.

Sakura was a poor excuse for a kunoichi, and she most certainly wasn't ready to become chunin, which meant even more dangerous missions. Perhaps once she had some _real_ training she could retake the exam.

She most likely had been pressured by Harou and Sasuke into even coming.

"I give up! There is no way I'm ready to be chunin, and I don't want my team dead because of me!" said Sakura. The look Sasuke and Harou shot her could have melt boulders. They were pissed.

"Get out," said Ibiki. Sakura quickly fled and avoided the looks of Sasuke and Harou, heading straight to the hospital. She knew she needed work on her medical jutsu, and it was the safest place to hide from her now pissed teammates.

"Anyone else?" said Ibiki.

Looking all over the room, he saw Naru glaring at him with fierce determination...just like her father. He resisted the urge to grin as he said "You pass."

Naru felt relief. She had passed the first part, which wasn't nearly as hard as she had feared.

Now she just had to deal with being in Anko's favorite playground. The only reason she even knew the woman was because Anko happened to be the one to show her how to properly wrap her chest up to fool everyone into thinking she was a boy, and how to mask her voice.

As such, Anko had introduced her early on to Area 44, and it was their favorite playground.

She was creeped out by the Grass nin who practically slithered up to Anko with the kunai she used to scare Kiba. Something didn't feel right about that woman.

"Guys, we should stay away from that Grass chick...she doesn't seem right."

"Are you sure Naru?" said Chouji. Naru was the defacto leader of their team in the even Asuma was out of commission. This was because they all trusted her to get them out of anything they managed to get into.

"I don't think she's a genin. She feels too strong."

"Good point. Plus Artemis said to keep and eye out for Grass shinobi...he said that one of the girls from Grass is Mars."

"Keep an eye out for red haired girls from Grass is what he said," said Shikamaru. Normally he wouldn't care, but the cat had hinted that the possibility the girl he saw was part of Naru's family had kept his attention. If it meant helping his friend regain even a little family, then he would help out. It wasn't like Naru didn't deserve to have a family that was made up of more than a pair of talking cats.

* * *

"Either of you feel we're being followed?" asked Karin.

"No, and you're just being paranoid," said their 'leader'. He didn't like Karin and she couldn't stand him. Especially when he was trying to get into her pants.

The same could be said of the third teammate, who she had rejected rather strongly last week. Karin didn't plan on sleeping for the next few days, because she didn't trust _either_ of the boys not to try something.

All that went up in flames when they were both eaten by something, leaving her the lone survivor. Her day was officially shot to hell.

Then a Konoha genin with long blond hair showed up, grabbed her mike, and called in reinforcements.

Scratch that, _now_ her day was definitely shot to hell.

Naru looked at Karin, who was the very picture of misery at the moment.

"Alright, we have a few questions and then you can go," said Naru grinning. This was going to be funny.

"Question one: which scroll did you get?" asked Shikamaru. He needed that answer now so Naru could wind the girl up.

"We have a Heaven scroll. I swiped it before either of those bastards did," snarked Karin.

"Question two: do you know your family name?" asked Ino.

"I'm an Uzumaki, if that's what your getting at... Fricken clan just had to have recognizable red hair..." muttered Karin.

"Here's our last question then... Did you know that there is another Uzumaki in Konoha?" asked Naru grinning.

"Uzushiogakure was wiped out during the last war. If there were any Uzumaki left, I would have heard about it by now! Seal masters that good don't just disappear!" said Karin.

"I find that funny, because Naru here happens to be a Uzumaki," said Shikamaru.

"Bullshit. Most, if not all Uzumaki have trademark bright red hair. And I seriously doubt they would dye it blond, because it was a mark of pride for us," said Karin.

"According to the Hokage, I inherited my dad's looks more than my mom's, and she was the Uzumaki. However I got all my personality from her," said Naru.

"...That makes more sense. Who was your mother?"

"Kushina Uzumaki, the Red Habenaro," said Naru.

Karin's eyes were wide.

"Kushina was the princess of Whirlpool! She was sent to Konoha after she took on Mito-sama's burden!"

"Which makes us cousins, doesn't it?" said Naru.

"But I'm from Kusa. The higher ups would never let me join Konoha, even if we are allies," said Karin.

"Yes, but from what I can see your team got eaten by the bigger animals, didn't they? Who's to say you didn't too? You could start fresh and no one would know," said Shikamaru.

"Where would I hide though?"

"I have a house and a cat that can tell you where things are. Besides, Artemis was the one to tell us to keep an eye out for you in the first place," said Ino.

"Plus since Ino's dad is the former head of the T and I division, he can clear you at the same time! It's a win-win!" said Naru.

"Where can I hide until I can leave the forest?" she asked.

"Stick with us until we get to the center. Knowing the old man, he'll be hiding from his paperwork in there until this part is over."

* * *

Naru had the team (plus Karin) pause, as she sensed something bad was close by. Suddenly there was a wind that blew her away from her team. She heard Karin and Ino cry out in shock.

Naru crashed into the cold forest floor in the middle of the biggest snake den. Naturally she wasn't happy about this.

Her displeasure only grew when she realized she was surrounded by at least ten elemental summons, all of them ready to eat/kill/maim her.

Things looked bad for the girl. Even with her shadow clones and limited wind jutsu, she wouldn't be able to handle this many snakes. She had trouble with five summoned by Anko whenever she was horsing around.

Right as she was about to be eaten alive, something inside her snapped into place. Words that she had never heard of before came to her mind and having nothing to lose, she said them.

"_Moon Prism Power, Make Up!"_

Armor she had only seen on Haku and Ino appeared on her, only her coloring was orange and white. On her head was the same tiara Ino and Haku had, only the jewel was a deep sapphire blue. Her usual twin pony tails now had accessories to them, and she had bows all over. Namely her chest, and her back side. She could feel a power inside her that settled, and it was too pure to be the Kyuubi.

Outside the forest, Luna and Artemis looked at each other before sharing a nod.

Sailor Moon, the reincarnation of their princess, had finally woken up. The only question was if they could find the crystal before all hell broke loose. With her awakening, the Negaverse would hone in on the Village Hidden in the Leaves, which meant they would be in for a real battle ahead.

Good thing it was a village of trained fighters. The chances of things going down the same way as the Moon Kingdom was very remote.

Naru slashed and killed the summons snakes with her odd chakra sword, which she had created purely out of whatever energy she had flowing through her at the moment. Thanks to the transformation, she was able to handle the snakes without any problem. And to add to this new power, her voice had hypersonic abilities. She screamed, and she could uproot trees!

She already had a dozen prank ideas that came from that weird attack that she couldn't wait to try out.

When the last snake fell, she used her new senses to locate Ino and Karin. The two were like beacons to her.

She ran like hell, because she was afraid for her team and her newly discovered family.


End file.
